In the beginning... A beginners journey towards F-Class

I see you don't wear glasses (congrats ;-). If you can, it is a good idea to get into the habit of wearing safety glasses (whenever I shoot with contact lenses I use a pair of cheapass clear or yellow safety glasses). This is a precaution against the occasional pierced primer (which can blow gas and sometimes flecks of gunk back into your face).



At some point you ought to start making your own ammo, both to make it cheaper as well as better. As soon as you do start making your own ammo, go straight to the very best match bullets you can get. There is very little price premium over crappo or mediocre bullets, and the bullet is by far the most important factor in making good ammo. Your shooting will improve much faster if you are using good ammo (e.g. how will you know what things about your trigger control is good or is bad, unless you are using really good ammo?)

I do wear clear shooting glasses most of the time, but for those pictures, which I was taking myself, I had to take them off for 2 reasons glare on the camera screen (couldn't see if I was in frame), secondly, they look goofy in pictures :p

I have taken my first step towards reloading. I have just ordered 2 new books.

1. Shooter's Bible Guide to Rifle Ballistics
2. The ABCs Of Reloading: The Definitive Guide for Novice to Expert

Then its off to the races on a beginners kit, hopefully sometime in late August or early September (when work calms down a bit, and I have the time to "dicker around" as my wife would say :D )

I also think I have decided to go with a new stock rather then a trigger. Exactly which stock from where at this point is still up in the air. Would love some suggestions. Just trying to keep it under 600ish at this point is all. :(
 
you can lay some fibreglass in the barrel channel of your sps stock just make sure to leave the barrel free floated. that should take some flex out of it. Failing that I just bought a choate stock and I was very pleased with the quality and fit. it was a dragunov sks stock so not what you need but I would buy another tomorrow just based on this experience. even the instructions were great and it included all the parts for a first class job.
 
I hear what you're saying. I certainly don't suggest the 30 or so degrees as illustrated. I guess to put it in different terms, I wouldn't recommend a shooter adopts a position or style based on what someone tells them alone - some things they need to figure out on their own. Absolutely take advise and direction from skilled shooters, but don't be shy with doing some experimentation if something is not working.

+2 "rnbra-shooter" - you summed up my thoughts nicely.

Yeah I hear ya.If the position produces results then who cares what it looks like!
 
I'm pretty green myself, but would recommend just lightening your factory trigger if money is tight. You should be able to get it down to 2-2.5 lbs which is pretty nice compared to the factory setting. Try to find one of those wisened old guys that hang out at the range and know everything about everything; they might be talked into adjusting your trigger for you if you don't feel comfortable yourself.
 
I'm pretty green myself, but would recommend just lightening your factory trigger if money is tight. You should be able to get it down to 2-2.5 lbs which is pretty nice compared to the factory setting. Try to find one of those wisened old guys that hang out at the range and know everything about everything; they might be talked into adjusting your trigger for you if you don't feel comfortable yourself.

I believe I will be adjusting the trigger rather then a new one. However I can't get anyone at my range to help... my range is private property, and it only has 1 member... me! :D :( :redface:
 
.....Trigger pull is hard (but I can still adjust it down) and when trying to level my gun (left to right not front to back) I can see the stock flexing. Which led me to either of those options for upgrade.....

Don't push the rifle laterally to get it into alignment. Just lift it slightly, reposition it, and put it back down.

If you want to upgrade the stock, watch for a take-off HS Precision. Shouldn't have to pay more than $300. Some factory models come with them, and get sold off when the owner buys an AICS, etc.

The Choates are heavy, and have a decent bedding system. Rifles stocked with them tend to shoot well. The Ultimate Sniper stock is embarrassing. The Varmint is better. They are very blocky and less ergonomic than many. I am not familar with the new model.
 
Tiriaq- I didn't mean I was pushing the bipod left to right. But the bipod has the level feature, so when your on unlevel ground, you can "tilt" your rifle left right (Imagine the hands on a clock. that type of motion, with the center of the clock is like looking down the sights, make sense?) The barrel and the action, as well as the comb of the stock start to move, but the upper part of the stock doesn't until the barrel physically pushes it.
 
So I am starting to make a list (and checking it way more then twice :) ) for relaoding equipment, and while looking at equipment I started looking at what bullet I would like to use.

As stated before, I have a Remington SPS Tactical in .223, which by my understanding using a .224 bullet (correct?) and it has a 1:9 twist. What would be my most acceptable weight for such a twist? I have read (on other sites) that that twist is good to .73grain bullets, but does 2 grains over (just to be uber clear, a 75grain) be unacceptable?
 
I have an SPS Tactical that does very well with 69 gr. Sierra Match Kings. I tried 75 gr. Bergers and they showed promise, but I didn't do enough work with them to see what their true potential was. 75 gr. would pretty much be the upper limit for a 1:9. You'd have to try them and see.
 
Update!

9. Practice Practice PRACTICE!!! I have been out about once or twice a week getting at least 20-30 shots off and things are looking better, still not thrilled about my SPS stock... I have even managed to get some of my family and friends, in this case father in law and co-worker (co-worker never fired a gun before :D) out to have some fun with more then just precision rifles. (anything that looks "tacticool" is mine :D )

My target for my Precision load at 150m, fairly good for MFS ammo and a flexistock, one "dropper"(?) or "flier" way down there though...
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10. Well I have finally had it with a "flexible" SPS stock, what a piece of $H!T !! I put a WTB add out for one of the R700 5r precision stocks that come with the bedding block and low and behold less then 24 hours later I had one on its way to me :D

Just received it yesterday and put on minutes before I had to leave to go to work, still haven't taken it to the range yet but all in good time, like maybe tomorrow morning :p From the pictures I was sent of the stock by the previous owner it looked straight up black but upon receiving it, I now see its a textured green and black, which is quite interesting doesn't really bother me, but I may sand it down and do a similar thing with it but in Red & black (my most favorite color combination). I love how the barrel is also free floated all the way back to the action, with NO work what so ever, just set it and forget it!
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I've been living vicariously through you and this thread as I wait for my Savage mod 12 to arrive. I was begining to wonder what happened to you as there were no posts for a while! Nice to see you are still at it!!
 
Oh, yeah still at it, just the busy season for me at work, doing tons of overtime and losing staff who are heading off to college and high-school and I gotta take up the slack... :(

But I will be out there more in the coming weeks, when our hours change to 4 days a week :D


I even have a special target for when I have a full day off with lots of other shooters to join in :ar15::cool:
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